The tears of Vader
by Kartion Elesto
Summary: This follows the events that molded Anakin into Darth Vader. Starting from my take on Anakin's failed attempt to rescue his mother in EP II, this will then go the EP III, and end at ROTJ. There is some swearing and moderate violence.


The tears of Vader Pt 1.  
  
By Kartion Elesto  
  
Chapter 1: A mother to be found and lost...  
  
"Mother, I'm coming." Anakin whispered. He was crouched on top of a sand- covered cliff at midnight, surveying an Encampment...a Tusken Encampment. This was where his mother was being held, and Anakin knew it. He could feel her presence...fading, somewhere in that Encampment. Traversing half the eastern Dune Sea in two days, his search had taken him here. His search had brought him to a built up area full of mindless roaring beasts. This wasn't going to be easy. Luckily, Anakin was on the eastern side of the Encampment, while the main entrance was at the northern side of the camp. At the main entrance, growling, over-sized beasts fought each other beside a fire, trying to eat the scraps off a bone. Anakin shook his head.  
  
"Hold on, just hold on mother, I'm almost there..." he whispered. He stood up, and took his lightsabre off his belt. He then turned, and walked twenty paces. Taking a deep breath, he let the Force flow through him. He felt it, giving him strength, and that was what Anakin wanted. He turned, counted to three. And using the Force, he ran as fast as he could and leaped off the cliff...  
  
...And landed behind a tent. The Force had cushioned the landing, and Anakin had not only landed without breaking any bones, but his landing hadn't made a noise at all. Anakin stayed crouched, and closed his eyes. He then let the Force embrace him again, and reached out to his Mother. Within a few seconds, he could feel here presence, but it was ever so faint now, there wasn't a lot of time. He peeked around the side of the tent, seeing two Tuskens sitting by a fire, Gaderffii sticks in hand. They were just sitting, watching the fire. Anakin rolled behind another tent. Instead of looking this time, Anakin used the Force to detect any Tuskens, there weren't. Save for two...in front of the tent Anakin needed. Anakin cursed, and felt the tent behind him. Hide and bone was all the tent was made out of. His lightsabre would be able to cut through it like air. Gripping the lightsabre tightly, he sprinted. He slid behind the tent he wanted to enter, and thumbed his lightsabre on. He quickly cut a door shaped flap into the back of the tent. De-activating his lightsabre, Anakin lifted the flap he made, and entered the tent.  
  
Two flickering torches on the one side of the room sparsely lighted the tent. Looking around, the inside wasn't much different from the outside. The floor was still sand, and the inside wasn't decorated, unless you called a hanging skeleton decoration. The tent was of medium size, and humid. Anakin heard a soft, pained moan from the other side of the tent, by the torches. Anakin's eyes started to adjust to the lighting as he started to approach the source of the moan. As he got closer, he saw a thin woman attached to the wall by shackles, with torn clothing, and cuts all over her. As Anakin got closer, he saw a side of the woman's face. Anakin didn't spot a bone on the floor, and trod on it, with a crunch. The woman slowly brought her head around to see the source of the noise. Anakin, looking up from where he'd trod on the bone, saw the woman.  
  
"Mom!?!" he said, his voice quiet. She moaned. "Mom?" he asked again, quietly. Shmi breathed deeply, and tried to keep her head straight.  
  
"Annie?" she moaned. Anakin moved up to Shmi, and stroked her fragile face.  
  
"I'm here mom...I'm here." Anakin said quietly, and soothingly.  
  
"Annie?" she moaned again, "Is that you?" she moaned. Shmi's eyes didn't move, and she seemed to stare vacantly past Anakin, like she was blind.  
  
"Mom...I'm here to save you." He whispered. Shmi still stared, like she didn't hear what he just said.  
  
"You've grown...so much since I last saw you..." she said, her voice weak. Anakin could feel her presence on the brink of nothing. Anakin had to do something now, or she would die. So Anakin got out his sabre, and thumbed it on. Making sure the guards didn't hear the sabre, Anakin slowly cut through the shackles, making sure not to cut Shmi. As they came free Anakin de-activated the sabre and caught Shmi in one swift movement, and carefully laid her down, going down into a crouch. Shmi's head turned towards Anakin, and her head shook a bit, and she gulped. Anakin knew that he could keep Shmi alive by using the Force, and so he called to it, asking it to help. The Force didn't respond, and Anakin couldn't feel Shmi's presence. The light had gone, and left him with darkness, nothing. 'What!?! No! Not now! Don't leave me!' he thought, but he knew his calls to the Force would be unanswered. Anakin felt tears welling in his eyes, knowing that he could no longer save her. The light had betrayed Anakin at the most crucial moment, and now Shmi would die; she would die in his arms, in an alien place, in the middle of nowhere. Anakin looked down to Shmi, and stroked her face.  
  
"Mom..." he said, sniffing. Shmi smiled weakly, and touched Anakin's face.  
  
"I'm so...proud of you Annie..." she said, her voice nearly gone. Her breathing became rapid and shallow. "I...love you so much Annie..." she said, her voice now a whisper in a whisper. She breathed in one final time, and her breath came out slowly. Her head fell back, her eyes staring towards the ceiling.  
  
"Mom!" Anakin nearly shouted, the sadness in his voice penetrated. He pulled Shmi closer to him. "Mom?" he said, sniffing. His pain and sadness overcame him, and he pulled Shmi as close as he could, and cried. He cried for many slow, painful seconds, cuddling his dead mother, and, little did anyone know, that these were the last moments of Anakin. These, were his last emotions, his last tears. Anakin then felt something in the Force, but it wasn't the light he'd always known. It was like a river of blood, flowing through him. Anakin breathed out hard, and in bits, and then the tears stopped coming to his eyes. Anakin felt something he never felt before, something that fuelled the river flowing through him, the river that filled his veins, and gave him strength: anger. He felt it so strongly, that every other feeling was blanked out. Anakin looked up, and closed his eyes. A tear from each eye dropped through the air slowly, and hit the sand with a slow thump. These were the first tears of Vader, the the boy Obi-Wan, Padme, and the Jedi Order knew, was gone. Now, a Sith was born, a new person was crouched next to Shmi. Anakin looked up, and gritted his teeth. He then looked down at his dead mother, and he put her down on the ground, and closed her eyelids. He then looked up, with a face full of hate, a face full of rage...a face, made by anger. 'I will avenge you mother! They will PAY!' he screamed in his thoughts. He thumbed his lightsabre, and yelled out loud as he charged out of the tent, and cut one of the Tusken guards down. The other turned, and Anakin sliced it in half, yelling again.  
  
A Tusken nearby saw this, and cried out an "Irk! Irk, irk; irk!" into the night. Anakin saw the Tusken and ran up to it as fast as he can. The Tusken raised its Gaderffii stick, and charged at Anakin. They both clashed. The Tusken raised its stick and brought it down on Anakin. Anakin brought his sabre up, and knocked the stick off to the right. Anakin span around and brought his sabre up yelling, slicing the Tusken in two. By now, all the male tribe members had heard the alert, and ran out of their tents, sticks in hand, yelling un-intelligibly. They ran at Anakin from every direction their sticks raised. That was their first mistake. Anakin waited until the Tuskens were right on top of him when he ducked, and sliced outwards yelling curses, cleaving six Tuskens in half.  
  
The Tuskens then made their second mistake, bringing down their sticks hard. Anakin rolled out the way, and using his hands, he pushed off the ground, his boots going into two Tuskens. As Anakin knocked the two away, he slashed out to his right, cutting six Tuskens heads off. Anakin landed on top of the two knocked down Tuskens, and stuck his sabre through one of them.  
  
"Take that you BASTARD!" he screamed. The remaining six Tuskens had turned, and were running towards him, sticks at waist height. They weren't going to fall for the same trick twice. One went ahead of the rest and yelling, sliced out. Anakin jumped up, and landed to the side of the Tusken. Anakin counter attacked with all his strength, but the Tusken parried each one expertly. The Tusken then sliced up, and Anakin fell backwards to avoid it. He landed where the two knocked down Tuskens should be, but instead of two being there, only one lay there: the dead one. As Anakin looked up, he saw a Tusken standing over him; its stick's pointed end pointing down.  
  
The Tusken stabbed down, but Anakin rolled out the way, using the dark side of the Force to give him strength. But, the Tusken pulled its stick out, and brought the bludgeoned end down, and the point of the bludgeon went through Anakin's hip. Anakin screamed in pain, but the dark river flowing through him absorbed the pain, and the pain fuelled the river even more.  
  
"You'll pay for that BITCH!" he screamed. Anakin yanked out the stick, and stuck the pointed end of the stick through the Tusken's face, and the stick went right through the Tusken's skull, and it came out the other side, bits of ripped Brain and tissue covering it. Anakin jumped up, and using the dark side to fuel him, he ran at the Tuskens screaming out more curses, and sliced randomly, chopping up five unlucky Tuskens into more than a few pieces. Anakin turned, and looked at the last Tusken. It was a bit bulkier than the other Tusken's, but it had a bigger Gaderffii stick, and the stick was covered with dried blood, it must be the chieftain of the Encampment.  
  
"Come and get me you bastard of an animal! Give me the pleasure of making you Bantha Fodder!" he shouted at it. The chieftain roared out something un- intelligible, and it ran towards Anakin, stick in an attack posture. It struck out towards many of Anakin's weak areas, but Anakin parried each one, the dark side using him like a puppet, an extension of its will. Screaming, Anakin counter attacked, but the chieftain blocked them all, so Anakin pressed the attack, using all his strength, until the chieftain was pressed up against a tent.  
  
"I've got you now bitch!" he shouted. Anakin attacked on, striking out randomly. The chieftain surprisingly, blocked most of them...save for Anakin's last two sabre movements. Anakin brought his sabre up slicing through the chieftain's Gaderffii stick into two, and then stabbed his sabre out just after. The blue blade filled the chieftains vision, and the blade went through its head, poking out the other side. Anakin pulled out his sabre, and watched the chieftain fall to the ground.  
  
"Now your wife, and your children will die, and everyone else in this God Forsaken Encampment will perish! I'll slaughter them, Ill hang them, I'll quarter them! Hell I might rape one of them for fun!" He shouted at the dead chieftain. "I spit on your kind, I spit on your animal like existence, and I spit on your fighting techniques!" he shouted again. He spat on the chieftain, and sliced his head off. Anakin picked the head up, and then saw a small Tusken run into a huge tent in the middle of the Encampment. As he closely inspected the tent, he could see hundreds of shadows, ranging from about half a meter, to his height. Anakin's thirst for vengeance wasn't clenched, and seeing those Tuskens hiding in their big tent, fuelled his thirst even more. They all deserved to die like the animals they are... 


End file.
